


Another Way

by IaMcHrIsSi



Series: My Star Wars AUs [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Another shameless fix-it, Gen, Padme lives Au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-12 09:37:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4474382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IaMcHrIsSi/pseuds/IaMcHrIsSi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Padme doesn't die at the end of ROTS. Instead she goes into hiding with both her twins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've always loved Padme, and I've always wondered what the twins life would have been like if she had lived. Therefore, have this.

The ship is cool and quiet. Nobody feels like talking, even the babies, newborn and tiny and perfect, are sleeping. They are the only one who find peace in this moment.

Padme lies on a makeshift bed, tired and weak and devastated. She doesn’t know what to do, how to go on. Her life used to rest on two pillars: her work as a senator of the Republic, and her marriage to Anakin. Both are utterly destroyed. The Republic has been turned into an Empire, and Anakin is dead, fallen beyond recogniction.

Bail, good, steady Bail, who stays calm in almost every situation and who has been her best friend ever since she first came to Coruscant, sits next to her. He is sunken down in hischair, eyes cast to the floor. He, too, is (was) a devoted senator of the Republic, a true democrat. Half his world has been destroyed, too.

Obi-Wan sits on her other side. The man, usually bright and perceptive, who always sits or stands upright, tall (not as tall as Anakin, though) and open, seems to want to curl up in a ball. His back is bent, his head in his hands. Padme thinks she sees tears streaming between them. She doesn’t say anything, though. Obi-Wan lost at least as much as she herself did.

Yoda, though, the little green master, mysterious even now, looks at her twins. Padme’s first instinct is to shoo him away, to protect her precious children from him. But there is no reason to do that. Master Yoda is one of the good guys, whatever that means today. He will not harm them. That does not mean that Padme is comfortable with his staring.

“Raised apart, they must be. Too strong, they are.” Yoda whispers to no one in particular. He looks sad, the old master, and both Bail and Obi-Wan raise their heads in surprise. It is Padme who answers, however.

“No!” She says rather forcefully, and possibly slightly hysterically. “You will not take them away from me. I will not allow it.” She leans over, takes the twins on her bed. They are heavy, heavier than they look. Or maybe she is just weaker than she had thought. It doesn’t matter. Within seconds both of them are lying next to her, warm and alive and breathing, as well as still (blessedly) asleep.

“Too big of a risk, it is.” Yoda tells her, eyes never leaving her children. Padme tries to think rationally. Of course it is a risk. They are Anakin’s children, too. The Emperor will want them, he will want to twist them into his weapons like he did with Anakin. Still, this is not happening. She will not let herself be separated from them.

“They have a rather strong Force presence.” Obi-Wan says. He is not looking at any of them, and Padme doesn’t know wether he is trying to help Yoda or not. She’s not sure whether he knows, either.

“Then I’ll go to the Outer Rim. Somewhere where nobody will look. Those are my children. Do not expect me to give them up.” She looks at the three men pleadingly. Gods, she hates to beg, hates to be so helpless, but in this situation, on this day, it seems like the best (the only) solution.

Bail scratches his beard, deeply in though. “I could arrange a fake funeral for you, Padme. Something huge, so that everyone will see it. I could make it so that it looks like you were still pregnant when you ‘died’. That way, nobody will suspect that the twins even exist. The Emperor will hardly search for something that doesn’t exist.”

Padme really wants to hug Bail. How could she ever doubt he would take her side in this discussion? She gives him a bright, slightly teary eyed smile. His answering smile is warm and reassuring.

“Well, I could technically put up some mental shields around them, at least until they are old enough to do it themselves. That way, I doubt the Emperor could find them.” Obi-Wan murmurs. He is still very deliberately not looking at anyone. Padme still sends him a smile.

“Go with Senator Amidala, you have to, then. Otherwise, the shields never hold up will.” Yoda says. He does not seem to be satisfied with this turn of events, but he knows when he is losing an argument.

“If you’re okay with that…” Padme looks at Obi-Wan. Slowly, the Jedi lifts his head. His eyes are weary and he seems to have aged a decade in the last two days. 

“I will have to go into hiding anyway, so if you would have me, I’d like to come with you.” He tells her, very sincerely. Padme is again reminded why Obi-Wan is, after Bail and Sabe of course, her closest friend.

“It’s decided, then. Do you have any specific location in mind?” Bail asks. Padme almost sees his mind working again, trying to find a solution for a specific problem like he did so often in the senate. It’s makes her smile.

“Tatooine.” It’s Obi-Wan who answers. Padme stares at him, and she knows that Yoda and Bail do, too. “Anakin has never been good at confronting bad memories or failures. Even if he were still alive, he would not set foot on that planet unless absolutely necessary. And to the Emperor, Tatooine is just another poor desert planet, not worthy of his attention. I highly doubt that he would ever go there, much less suspect anything, or anyone, would be hidden on Tatooine.”

Obi-Wan is right, Padme realizes. Tatooine is not a place that the Emperor would even remember exists, and she even knows someone there.

“Anakin has family there. A step father, Cliegg Lars, a step brother, Owen Lars, and Owen’s fiance Beru.” She tells the men. “We could ask them for help, at least in the beginning.” Obi-Wan nods, tired and sad, and Bail squeezes her shoulder. Yoda closes his eyes.

“Talk to the pilot, I will.” Yoda says and leaves the room. There is a moment of silence. Then Padme remembers something she had thought about weeks ago, when she had thought that she’d live with her baby on Naboo, when Anakin had still been with her, when the world was not broken yet.

“Do you two know about the concept of a godfather?” She asks her friends softly. On Naboo, it is tradition for a child to have both a godfather and a godmother, who are usually close friends with the parents. The godparents are closer to the child than uncle or aunt, they are mentors, friends, and well, second parents. Padme had loved her godparents dearly, and she had been very distraught when they had both died in a speeder accident on the same day.

She had never talked about it with Anakin, Padme realizes, never quite found the time for that topic. She has no idea what the Tatooinian customs for godparents are like, or if a godfather and a godmother are even something that exists on Tatooine. She should know, she thinks, should have looked it up or asked someone. But at that point, she had also thought that she would have time later on, time to ask Anakin and discuss everything with him.

Padme had decided, weeks ago, that Sabe would be her babies godmother. It had not been a difficult choice. Sabe is her best friend and has been since they were both 14. About the godfather, well, that had been a difficult choice. She had wanted to choose Bail, her best friend aside from Sabe, but Bail is her friend, has never been particularly close to Anakin. Obi-Wan however is (was) a friend to both her and Anakin.

Now, it turns out she doesn’t need to choose. Twins, that means there are two godfathers needed. She smiles at her friends and desperately tries not to think about what Anakin would say.

“I would like to name you, Bail Organa, godfather for my daughter Leia, and you, Obi-Wan Kenobi, godfather for my son Luke.” Padme tells them solemnly. 

Both men stare at her for a moment. Then they look at the children. Bail is the first one to speak.

“I humbly accept this honor and this duty.” He tells her, the traditional Nabooian answer to such a request. Padme is not surprised he knows the tradition. Bail is looking at Leia instead of her, though, a fond smile on his face. 

Obi-Wan takes a moment to find his voice again, but then he says, very sincerely, “I’m honored, Padme, and accept this position.” He looks at the twins, sleeping peacefully, unaware that their future has just been decided.


	2. An unexpected visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Padme receives an unexpected visitor in her exile on Tatooine.

The sun is burning hot today, so much that the cooling system of the farm can’t really counteract it too much. Padme feels the sweat run down her back, but after two years of living here, she has gotten used to it.

What she has not quite gotten used to is the constant physical work. When Padme was a queen and a senator, she used to work all day, and sometimes _(too often)_ all night as well, but that was intellectual work, done while sitting comfortably at her desk or standing in the senate. Now, she has to work all day, cleaning and sewing and helping out wherever she can. She falls into bed at night and still feels all her bones on the morning.

Still, Padme is not unhappy. She should be, exiled on a desert planet, with her husband turned evil and dead, with the Republic destroyed and not able to contact her sister or her parents, but somehow she isn’t. She has the Beru, who has become a very good friend, almost a sister _(Padme had planed to make Sola Luke’s godmother, but quickly changed her mind. Sola doesn’t even know Luke exists, and Beru is right there, loving Luke like she would her own)_. She has Owen, gruff and seemingly distant but also steady and caring. She has Obi-Wan _(he wants her to call him Ben, and she does, at least in public. In her mind he will always be Obi-Wan, though)._ And she has the twins, her wonderful, bright, clever, beautiful children.

They are sitting on the floor right now, playing quietly with some mechanics Owen gave them. Softly, she hears them babbling in that language they made up for themselves. It seems to be a mix out of standard and Tatoo, the language of the slaves on Tatooine. Beru, who is a freeborn daughter of a slave much like Padme’s twins are, has taught them She had said that the twins should know their cultural heritage, and Padme had not argued. The Jedi had forced Anakin to give up his, and look how that had turned out.

Here on Tatooine, these children are the Skywalker twins, grandchildren of Shmi Skywalker. Padme had not been all that comfortable with this, considering what Anakin had done, considering that if the Emperor ever heard, he’d most likely directly make the connection. But Owen had argued that just because Anakin did something stupid ( _understatement of the century)_ Shmi’s name shouldn’t disappear, and Beru had pointed out that children with the name Skywalker would always have a home in the community of her (Beru’s) people the way children with another, free surname never would, and so Padme had relented. 

Padme had introduced herself as Anakin’s widow Ana, whose home had been destroyed in the clone wars. Even here people had heard about those wars, so nobody questioned it. Obi-Wan had become Ben, Ana’s brother. It’s a designation that Padme is not quite comfortable with but accepts nontheless, it grants him a reason to be with her and her children and keeps others from staring at him too much. Together with the Lars’s, who had taken them in, they made a family, small and a bit broken, but a family still.

Sometimes Padme thinks Anakin would approve, that he would be proud of them, and doesn’t know how to feel about that.

But Padme doesn’t want to think about Anakin, not now. It’s strange, that here, on Tatooine, Anakin’s homeplanet, she is actually able to forget about him, but she is. She is constantly surrounded by the ghost of Shmi Skywalker, but not that of Anakin, and for that she is grateful.

She turns back to the desk she had been cleaning. It’s quite interesting how quickly stuff gets dirty when four adults and two toddlers share a place to live. At least nobody expects Padme to cook anymore. She had tried a couple times, but it had been a complete disaster, so that now that duty rests solely with Beru, to the relief of pretty much everyone.

Tonight Beru will take the children to Imee, the Wise Woman. She tells the stories of the children of the desert, the name the slave community has given itself. Padme will not go with them. She is not one of them. But that’s okay. She is just glad that her children are.

Instead she will write a letter to Bail. She doesn’t dare send them often, for fear of discovery, but she and Bail have managed to keep up contact, and Bail tells her about all the things that happened in the galaxy. Last time he had send her a holo of Winter, his adorable adopted daughter. She’s of an age with the twins. In another life they could have been friends, maybe even siblings. For some reason that thought makes Padme smile. 

There is a knock on the door. Padme puts away her cleaning rag and goes to answer. Maybe it’s Kitser, an old friend of Anakin, who likes helping out. He had promised to take a look at their malfunctioning lighter.

It’s not Kitser. There, in the door, stands a hooded figure, face hidden behind dark cloth, but Padme would recognize her everywhere.

“Sabe.” She breathes, and her friend falls into her arms. Vaguely, Padme realizes that she should not make a scene where others can see, and she pulls her friend _(her sister)_ inside. Then she takes a moment to just breath, basking in the joy of finally seeing Sabe again. 

“Bail told me where to find you. I thought… I thought you’d died there, Padme.” Sabe is crying, and Padme notices that she is crying to. She used to be concious about who saw her crying, and here on Tatooine some people claim that it’s a waste of precious water. It makes no matter. Sabe is here, and that’s the only thing that’s important right now.

“I wanted to tell you, so much. But it would have put you in more danger than I ever wanted you to be in.” Padme tells her, finally letting go of Sabe long enough to look her into the eyes. Sabe’s eyes are harder, and she looks as though she hasn’t smiled in a while, but it’s still Sabe, still her sister.

“Stupid. You know that I don’t care about the danger. I just wanted to be with you!” Sabe looks her into the eyes. They still look alike, Padme marvels, even after so many years.

“But I care.” She states, proud of how calm she sounds.

In that moment, she hears a noise from behind. When she turns around, Luke and Leia are standing there, hand in hand, curiously staring at Sabe, who in turn stares at them. Padme smiles.

“Sabe, these are my children. Luke and Leia, say hello to Auntie Sabe.” She tells them. Sabe lets go of Padme and sinks to her knees in front of the twins.

“Hello, you two.” She coos, and Padme feels tears in her eyes again as her children each take one of Sabe’s hands and smile at her.

She doesn’t write the letter to Bail until five nights later, when Sabe leaves to go back to Alderaan where she is tutoring the little princess and helping to build a rebellion, leaving nothing but a promise to visit again.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr as lukeleiahan.


End file.
